Geolocate
Where is the Geolocate button pulling the GPS data from?
We are testing tablets that are using an AirCard to connect to the Internet & are using NetMotion to access our internal network (VPN). When users connected via the Aircard & Netmotion press the geolocate button the viewer (both HTML5 & Silverlight) are unable to locate the tablet. When a user is not connected using netmotion, the button works properly. My question is:1) Where does the geolocate function detect the GPS coordinates? And 2) can we redirect where/how the geolocate button pulls the GPS data (the tablets haven an internal GPS locator)? Or should we approach it from a network perspective?
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Fixed that by using my own geometry service. Is there a way to configure the zoom in scale?
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Also, how do you remove the geolocation circle(s)?
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Hi Mike,
Clicking (or tapping) on the circle will remove it.
Multiple clicks required for removing multiple overlapping circles (in case you have clicked on geolocation button several times).
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What file is the geolocation setting in. I did some quick looking but could not find anything.
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There is this in the json files, but I do not see any way to modify it...no parameters are listed in the Admin Guide...seems like you should be able to specify a zoom scale.
"moduleName" : "ZoomControl",
"moduleType" : "geocortex.essentialsHtmlViewer.mapping.modules.zoomcontrol.ZoomControlModule",
"configuration" : { },
"views" : [ {
"id" : "GeolocateView",
"viewModelId" : "GeolocateViewModel",
"visible" : true,
"type" : "geocortex.essentialsHtmlViewer.mapping.modules.zoomcontrol.GeolocateView",
"markup" : "Mapping/modules/ZoomControl/GeolocateView.html",
"region" : "TopLeftMapRegion",
"configuration" : { }And then later this:
"viewModels" : [ {
"id" : "GeolocateViewModel",
"type" : "geocortex.essentialsHtmlViewer.mapping.modules.zoomcontrol.GeolocateViewModel",
"configuration" : { }0 -
I am facing the same problem although I have replaced the gecoding with my server address but still I can not see map overview.After the replacement I am getting the following error Error in projecting geolocation: Cannot convert 'this._gc' to object
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I too would like to control the zoom level when a user tap the GeolocateView tool in the HTML viewer 1.1 - Latitude: Is this possible?
Thanks
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Hi Sune,
There isn't currently a way to control the geolocation zoom level, but I can file an improvement in our issue tracking system and we'll try to roll it into a subsequent release.
- Jason
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A configuration option for the Geolocate tool would be great.
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If we're talking new feature, my recommendation would be to allow either 'Zoom to' with the ability to set this or option for 'Pan to'. This way, the user can zoom to the level they want then when they click the geolocate, it'll pan to their location but honour the zoom level they want. In the HTML5 viewer config page, you could have the option: Use Zoom to + Zoom Level OR Use Pan To + Pan speed?
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Hello, I find that the geolocate feature gives a huge radius when using only a data connection. It's better on WI-FI but not very practical. Is this because the HTML5 viewer is a web application and it can't access the built in smartphone GPS? I'm hoping this is improved with the new Geocortex App?
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Hi Dan,
You're absolutely right -- in a browser, we're limited to whatever geolocation API is provided, and location accuracy can suffer as a result. In a native app, we can access the device's GPS.
Cheers,
Jordan
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Interesting, thanks for the information. I wonder, are certain browsers better than others at leveraging GPS capabilities?
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Hi Dan,
As Jordan mentioned modern browsers (
- IE9+
- FF 3.5+
- Safari 5.0+
- Chrome 7.0+
- Opera 10.6+
- iOS Safari 3.2+
- Andriod default browser as of OS version 2.1+
) rely on W3C geolocation api. W3C api documentation denotes that "Common sources of location information include Global Positioning System (GPS) and location inferred from network signals such as IP address, RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses, and GSM/CDMA cell IDs, as well as user input. No guarantee is given that the API returns the device's actual location."
Since browsers rely on W3c Geolocation API you would think they should have the same level of accuracy but there are some slight differences as you wondered. Especially early revisions of IE9 known to display considerably inaccurate results.
All that said, Geolocation API usually tries device's GPS first and then cell tower triangulation and so forth. So in your case I'm guessing that you had your device's GPS disabled probably that you were getting very large circles.
Cheers
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Has anyone experimented with using an external GPS to improve the geolocate when performing mobile data collection?
You can use a device like the (https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/oem/sensors-and-boards/glo-/prod109827.html) Garmin Glo to connect with your iPad/iPhone via Bluetooth to improve your location information.
The specs say you can get 3 meter accuracy.
Have you tried something similar? What was your experience?
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Dan, thanks for the Information. Just from my own observations, it appears that the HTML5 viewer doesn't leverage the fine GPS location of the device. I'm using a Galaxy S4, GPS and WiFi are enabled on the device. When I go to other mapping sites (Google, Map Quest) and use the geolocate feature, the little GPS icon appears (top left). This doesn't happen with the HTML5 viewer. It looks like it's only accessing the coarse GPS location. Choice of browser doesn’t seem to matter much.
If there's a device we can use to improve the accuracy of the GPS, that would be great too!
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Hi All, has there been any update on this in regards to manually configuring Geolocate accuracy, and leveraging your own devices GPS location? I created a data collector application for our Parks department, however they are experiencing mixed results when using Geolocate out in the field. Thank You! -Laura
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Geolocation is a fairly complex topic, as it turns out. The HTML5 viewer will simply ask the browser's Geolocation API for a position and consume the result. What happens under the hood is up to the browser, the operating system, and the hardware.
As Dan mentioned a few posts up, there are multiple sources of data for location. Actual satellite-based GPS is considered "expensive" and will indeed drain your mobile devices battery much faster than heuristic means, such as network assisted or triangulation based readings.
We've found that asking the Geolocation API for a single reading using the designated API call is often less accurate than asking it to begin actively tracking you and collecting a reading that way before disabling tracking. This makes sense to me: tracking a moving person or vehicle using heuristical means is much more difficult and error-prone than using actual GPS.
We have a bit more research to do, but we'll likely implement this in an upcoming release of the viewer. Thanks for all of the feedback so far!
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Good to know, thank you Jason! I'm now looking into developing a hybrid app for Android devices. Basically creating a shell app to consume our web app, so it can utilize the devices GPS & camera capabilties. If you have any suggestions on what the best route to go about this would be, I would really appreciate it. Thank You -Laura
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